This is a copy of the letter that I sent to the Board of Directors
outlining what I knew about Estrella War XIII and this entire
debacle. It was sent on the request of Lee Forgue (Society Seneschal).

In light of this information, I am amazed that they came to the decision
that they did. My only explanation is that they wanted to take the avenue
of least resistance. That way they could argue that they were "even handed"
all the way around. In the land of the politically correct, the man without
convictions is King.

I am writing in regard to your investigation of the financial and
accounting matters of the Kingdom of
Atenveldt, SCA, and Estrella War XIII. It is my understanding that the
Crown of Atenveldt is placing the
inadequacies and bad judgement of their Seneschal and Exchequer at the feet
of the war autocrats.
Where my involvement in Estrella War XIII was quite minimal, I do believe I
can give you enough
insight into how the war was planned to run, and how the autocrats were
forced to run it.

First, let me give you a little bit of background. I have been involved in
the running of Estrella War in
one fashion or another for eight of the past ten years. My involvement has
run from Merchant's Row
Security, through Site Autocrat, to Main Autocrat (Site Autocrat and Main
being held multiple times).
During the past number of years, there has been a movement by some members
of the Kingdom to move
Estrella War from its current site to Schnepp Farms in the Barony of Twin
Moons. When this was first
announced, members of the populous were invited out to inspect the site by
the local Baron and Baroness
(Mann and Katie). Upon inspection, we found that the drainage for the
property was inadequate, part of
the fighting area would have been unacceptable to an insurance company, and
the cost figures being
projected were twice that of the services at Estrella Park. Those members
of the Kingdom who had been
involved in the running of the War brought these shortcomings to the
attention of not only the Baron and
Baroness, but the members of the populous. Unfortunately, once that
transpired, those of us with
concerns were now considered "the enemy" by Mann and Katie for
disconnecting the movement of
Estrella War to their Barony. Arthur and Tamira were very close to Mann and
Katie and wished the site
to be moved also. It was a very sad situation, and unfortunately one that
many of us have had to deal
with for a number of years. The Schnepp Farm's coalition has taken every
opportunity to try and
discredit anyone opposing their moving of the war for the past couple of
years. It is very interesting to
note that the highest profile people involved in wanting to move the war
were: Arthur and Tamira,
current King and Queen of Atenveldt, Mann and Katerina, current Crown
Prince and Princess of
Atenveldt, Ellie McMurtry, Kingdom Seneschal during Estrella XIII, and
William the Cursed, Kingdom
Exchequer during Estrella XIII.

Marcus Dundee the Brewer, O.L., a friend and fellow Master of the Atenveldt
Brewers Guild, had
decided that he would like to be Main Autocrat for Estrella War XIII. He
had served in the Site Autocrat
position for a number of years, and felt comfortable in assuming that
position. He had a number of ideas
for aiding in the accounting of the War and starting to run it closer to a
mundane business operation (at
the time he ran a computer consulting firm in Phoenix). Upon approaching
Erik and Nichelle, the current
Crown, they told him that they would be happy to have him as his autocrat
on the condition that he could
find a "Token Pelican" who had held the job before to assist him (Erik and
Nichelle were fully aware of
Mark and my relationship, so I assume they were speaking of me). Mark
approached me, and after
considerable screaming and hair pulling I agreed to assist him. At the
time, I was planning on taking the
next 20 years off from autocratting in order to start enjoying the Society
again and get some fighting in
(which was why I had originally joined). He was aware that my work
schedule was volatile, and that he
would have to carry the brunt of the work in being the Main Autocrat. I
would be there to make sure that
he covered all his bases and aid him in setting up the structure for
running the war.

The first thing that was decided was to try and reign in the sub-autocrat's
budgets by instituting a
voucher system for all of their costs. This involved a written voucher
that each sub-autocrat would fill
out and present to the Main Autocrat to "sign off" on. They would in turn,
take that to the Site Autocrat
for the ordering of equipment, or the Exchequer for the requesting of
funds/payments/etc . . . This was
run past the Crown, the Seneschal, and the Exchequer, and met with their
approval. In turn, this was
explained to all the sub autocrats at a meeting held during Crown
Tournament in Encanto Park in
Phoenix, AZ. It was also during this meeting that we supplied the Crown and
the Seneschal with a copy
of our proposed budget for the war. Due to my work schedule, this was one
of the two Estrella War
meetings that I was able to attend.

The war moved forward at that point in its normal juggernaut fashion. At
one point, Marcus told me that
he was starting to run into difficulty with getting an insurance voucher
from the Kingdom Seneschal, and
that there were a number of complaints from sub autocrats about an
inability to actually make contact
with the Exchequer. I contacted the Crown at that point to see what the
difficulty was. Erik and Nichelle
informed me that Ellie was dragging her feet on signing and facilitating
all the paperwork involved with
the war. They were unable to get her to request the necessary paperwork
from corporate, and her reports
to them reflected "no reports received" from certain autocrats, when those
same autocrats had sent
duplicates to the Crown unknown to Ellie (a good number of people had
learned to cover their butts).
They also said that William was not returning his phone calls, was not
writing reimbursement checks to
not only sub-autocrats but to Merchants and vendors. I asked them what
they planned to do about the situation, and they told me that their hands were tied on the matter.
They had complained to their
Corporate Officers, but those officers had refused to allow them to fire
Ellie and William. They also told
me that the Autocrat Staff would just have to make the best of the
situation and try and work with it as well
as we could.

At this point, a number of people in the populous have said that Marcus and
I should have resigned
instead of being placed in this position. However, we are talking only a
few months away from the war
and changing autocrats in mid stream would have been very difficult in the
current political climate of
the Kingdom. Erik and Nichelle were not particularly popular at the time.
The Barony of Twin Moons
had told our volunteer autocrat that Their Barony would not work at the war
in protest of Erik and
Nichelle and how shabbily they had been treated. That in turn made the
leaders of a number of very
large households (friends with Twin Moons) also state that they would not
volunteer themselves or their
households. Marcus and I both decided that in light of all these
circumstances it would be disastrous for
the war for us to resign at that time. We would just have to do what we
could to smooth things out as
much as possible.

I am sorry that I cannot give you more specifics, but I could not attend
the autocrat's meetings, nor was I
privy to daily/weekly involvement of the War. I was there as a
"safety-net" to make sure that all the right
authorities were contacted, permits received, privies and showers were
ordered. Unfortunately, Marcus
is so disgusted by this entire chain of events, that he refuses to take the
time to write you concerning the
matter. He is not renewing his membership, and I'm afraid we have lost him
from the Society. He has
seen too much of this type of thing happen to hard-working people in
Atenveldt, and has decided it is no
longer worth the trouble.

The next major difficulty came about two months before the War when I asked
Marcus about the
vouchers. Had he had quite a few? How was it working? He told me that he
hadn't seen any. I told him
that this close to the war, the subs had better have everything ordered and
he should have seen vouchers
from all of them. I also told him he had better contact them and find out
what was going on because they
were going to hit hard deadlines. A couple days later, Marcus called me
and told me that all the subs had
been going directly to the Exchequer and the Site Autocrat without using
the voucher system. Being
somewhat angry I asked, "why not?". He told me that the Seneschal had told
them that keeping track of
the funds was the Exchequer's job and that they did not need any voucher
from the Main Autocrats. I
reiterated that without those vouchers we had absolutely no control over
who spent what, or who ordered
what. Marcus told me that when he spoke with William he was told that he
was a "High Officer of the
Kingdom" and that it was his responsibility to keep track of all the money
and we were merely the
Autocrats. He also told Marcus that if he did not like the situation, he
should complain to the Seneschal,
but they had made this decision.

I then called the Crown. Needless to say, I was very angry with the entire
situation. Erik and Nichelle
told me that they were aware of the situation and there was nothing they
could do about it. They could
not remove them without the permission of their Corporate Officers, and
that had been denied them.
They also told me that it appeared Ellie and William were doing everything
in their power to screw up
the War so that it could be moved to Schnepp Farms next year. I was
shocked that they would say that,
but they reiterated that Ellie and William had done everything within the
powers of their office to mess up
Estrella XIII. They had done this by playing games with the insurance to
undermining the voucher
system without telling anyone. They also informed me that we had no
control over any of our sub-
autocrats who were also Kingdom level officers. They had been informed by
Ellie and William that we
were only Autocrats and that they were Officers. We only had control over
the few sub-autocrats who
were not Kingdom level officers. They also asked Marcus and me not to
resign, as the War was only a
couple weeks away and they would never be able to replace us this late in
the game. They realized that
we were placed in a difficult situation, but the needs of the Kingdom had
to come first. The War had to
continue. Mark and I decided not to resign.

The next week, I was informed by my work that my vacation time scheduled
for the week of the War had
been canceled due to changes in office personnel. I told Marcus that he
was going to pretty much be on
his own at the War since I worked a swing shift. I would sleep on a site,
but would have to leave for
work at around 10:00am and I would get back around 11:00pm. He thought
that it was par for the course.

The war happened. As any war, you have a field, potties, and showers, and
it will happen. Marcus
informed me that the sub-autocrats had ordered the world for the war and
their areas. I told him that we
had no control over it. If Ellie and William wanted to be in charge, then
they would have to bear the
fruits of their actions. We had no control over the monies, no control
over what was ordered, and no
control over any Kingdom Officers. Our signatures appeared on nothing, and
all the safeguards that we
had put into place had been removed by the Kingdom Seneschal and the
Kingdom Exchequer. We had
reported our problems to the Crown who informed us that there was nothing
they could do about it. All
in all, we should be in the clear.

After the war, Arthur and Tamira stepped up as King and Queen of Atenveldt.
Their first action was to
investigate the running of Estrella War XIII. They not only had a copy of
the accounting for Estrella War
XIII (something that Marcus and I had been trying to get from William for
weeks), but also the
accounting for Estrella War XII which William told us that he did not have
when Estrella War XIII was
being planned. Consequently, we had to negotiate with the vendors without
knowing what they had been
paid the previous year. One vendor, Waste Management, told us that the
Estrella War XII autocrat had
promised him a 15% increase at Estrella XIII if he would keep his prices
the same for Estrella XII. He said that the Autocrat had told him that the Crown (Mann and Katerina)
needed Estrella XII to be as
inexpensive as possible due to budget constraints. He was also to do
whatever possible to lower those
costs for that war. In the accounting for Estrella XIII was a number of
items that Marcus and I had
absolutely no clue who ordered. William paid all these bill "carte
blanche" without even allowing
Marcus and I to review them. By doing so, we were not only denied
accountability in the ordering, but
we were not even allowed accountability in payment and questioning charges
by the vendors.

I explained all of this information to Duchess Amanda, the new Kingdom
Seneschal, when this was
being investigated. It is my understanding that Arthur and Tamira
disregarded all this information and
decided to do what they wished. As both Marcus and I had left the Kingdom
for better job opportunities,
I am certain from my past dealings with them that they thought we would not
reply.

One of the main difficulties that I have in all this is the disparity in
the actions of the Crown. They have
requested "Banishment from the Society" for William the Cursed. In light of
some of the actions that
have arisen I can agree with this. "Banishment from the Kingdom for the
tenure of Our Reign" for Ellie
McMurtry. The Kingdom Seneschal who was directly responsible for William,
and the Seneschal who
would sign twenty blank checks in a run so she would not be bothered all
the time. The Seneschal who
with William not only hindered the workings of the Kingdoms largest event,
but also removed all the
checks and balances put in place by the Autocrats to assure a reasonable
accounting. Also the Seneschal
who informed Kingdom Officers that they did not have to report to the
Autocrats since they were
Officers. This further diminished accountability by the Autocratting staff
and further diminished what
checks and balances the Main Autocrats had left in their control. This is
viewed by those in the Kingdom
as a "slap on the hand" for one of Arthur and Tamira's / Mann and Katerina's
friends.

"Banishment from the Society" for the Main Autocrats (who no longer reside
in the Kingdom of
Atenveldt). The Main Autocrats were systematically removed from all
authority by the Seneschal and
the Exchequer, all their checks and balances put in place were removed.
They were removed from
reports by Kingdom level officers who were their sub-autocrats (a majority
of the sub-autocrats), and
were denied authority over those officers by the Seneschal. Upon reporting
their problems with the
Seneschal and Exchequer to a higher officer (the Crown) they were informed
that there was nothing they
could do about the situation and to try and make the best of it they could.
Finally, when the war was
completed--the Exchequer denied them a copy of the final accounting, denied
them copies of the bills,
and denied them the ability to question suspicious charges by vendors. To
add insults to injury the final
accounting was given to the new Crown without any input from the Main
Autocrats. In addition a copy of
the final accounting for Estrella War XII, which the Main Autocrats had
been trying to secure for over a year from the Exchequer's office, was also given to them. Even after all
of this--which was imparted to
Duchess Amanda and I am certain forwarded to the Crown, Arthur and Tamira
chose to seek
"Banishment from the Society" for the Main Autocrats. I have to assume
that since they were so lenient
with Ellie, a friend of theirs, that this is merely a final swipe at two
members of the Society who no
longer live in their Kingdom and had the audacity to question their actions
in the past.

In finishing, Arthur and Tamira were fully aware that my job with Estrella
War XIII was as merely a
"caretaker" and "safety-net." They were at the War, and had to be fully
aware that I was working that
week and only sleeping on site. From my discussions with Duchess Amanda,
they were also aware that
my involvement with planning the War was negligible at best. In spite of
all this, they still seek to have
me removed from the Society. All I can say is that from my point of view,
this is nothing more that the
same type of petty, vindictive politics that Atenveldt has become famous
for. Through all of this, I have
had no contact with Arthur and Tamira, and have only received one letter
from the Kingdom Seneschal.
According to Governing and Policy Decisions (the portion on dispute
resolution, which was made part of
Atenveldt Kingdom Law) there are many levels of contact that I should have
received from Arthur and
Tamira. In this instance, I believe that they have not only acted contrary
to the Governing and Policy
Decisions but also to their own Kingdom Law which requires those dispute
resolution practices. They
have attempted to punish a Crown for their actions during their reign, Erik
and Nichelle. The same
action that Erik and Nichelle received removal from fighting Crown
Tournaments for a span determined
by the Board. They have not only acted outside the ideals of the Society,
but contrary to the directives of
the Board of Directors and their own Kingdom Law.

I would ask that no actions be taken against either Marcus or myself. If
we had the ability to control the
war as we had originally set out to do, blame would fall to us. However,
given that all of our authority
and control was removed from us by the Kingdom Seneschal and Exchequer, the
blame should rest upon
the doorstep of those who created the problem--Ellie and William. I would
also ask that the actions of
Arthur and Tamira be considered by the Board. It is not difficult to see
that many of their actions are
merely due to petty, arrogant actions. Corpora makes provisions for
frivolous actions brought to the
Board, that is the sanctions requested by the Crowns would fall upon them.
I do not advocate the
removal of Arthur and Tamira from the Society, they are as much a part of
this organization as anyone,
but I do believe that there should be a penalty to them for creating this
problem when they already had
the answers. They just didn't like what those answers were.
Thank you for your time in this matter, and I hope the future holds more
pleasurable decisions for you.